Cellulosic or fiber containers have long been employed by industry for the purpose of packaging and transporting a broad variety of substances which are considered generally to be non-caustic. Such materials include, for example, a variety of foods, soaps, fertilizers and the like. For many such materials, important packaging cost savings may be realized by resort to these fiber containers as compared with plastic or steel containers or the like of equivalent capacity. Typically, the fiber containers are shaped as right cylinders having diameters from about 8 to 18 inches which are closed by metal or fiber lids secured, in turn, conventionally by two or more clips which are cleated to the container body portion. Generally, reliable lid securement is not available to the end user following initial opening of the containers. Consequently, where the material within such container is accessed on a somewhat repetitive basis by the user, no desirably secure and practical reclosure of the container is available. Such secondary closure features are found to be valuable not only on the part of the end user but also prior to filling containers, i.e. during their pre-filling mode of use where the assemblages of container and lid are shipped as a unit to the filling party. For such shipment purposes, it also is desirable to provide a container-lid architecture wherein the lid is removably securable to the container such that it can be removed for container filling, then repositioned and locked into place. Preferably, this latter attachment of locking of the lid by the filling entity is provided by a "tamper evident" technique where any subsequent opening involves a readily apparent destruction of the primary latching structure.
Stacking considerations also are encountered in connection with the shipping or transporting of lids themselves to the filling or container manufacturing entity. Thus, their design, while incorporating the above multiple mode latching aspects, should also permit a compact and convenient stacking capability. Finally, to permit economical, higher volume production, the lid should be fabricable of a plastic material such as a polyolefin using practical molding techniques.